A couple of months back, we had a dialect-themed lunch swap in the office and our Hakka colleague brought lei cha to the table. As an avid lover of the dish, I had nothing but praise for it. Aaron, on the other hand, remained rather straight-faced.
“It’s nice, but nothing can beat my favourite Leipopo,” he said, referring to Hakka Leipopo, his favourite lei cha stall. Well, Aaron’s a certified foodie and has been writing food reviews way longer than I have; his taste buds must be trustworthy.
I immediately bookmarked the stall and eagerly counted down the days to my visit. And now we finally have it: my review of Hakka Leipopo. Will this really be the lei cha to end all lei cha?
Hakka Leipopo is the brainchild of ex-piano teacher Kumiko Tan. Fuelled by her passion for the dish, she kickstarted the business as a home-based operation. It went physical in 2022 with its first brick-and-mortar outlet in Bukit Merah View Food Centre.
The biz has since been thriving, with a second outlet in One Punggol and a freshly opened one in Anchorvale Village.
Of the 3, I chose to visit the ‘flagship’ Bukit Merah outlet. Nothing will beat the authenticity of where it all began, am I right? Part of me simply wanted to avoid trudging all the way to the northeast, too — a valid concern, in my defence.
What I tried at Hakka Leipopo
Leipopo’s menu is fairly simple, with just 2 signature offerings of Hakka Lei Cha and Hakka Yong Tau Foo, which you can get a la carte portions of for S$5 and S$7.20 respectively.
If you’d like to sample the best of both worlds, there’s also Set A/B (S$8.30/S$11.70) in which your lei cha is paired with either 3 pieces or 7 pieces of yong tau foo. Ravenous, I headed straight for Set B and opted for a base of Brown Rice for an additional S$0.50.
It would be an understatement to simply call the portion of lei cha heaped. And no, it’s not an optical illusion; the bowl itself was pretty huge and deep.
A literal garden of ingredients — in shades of green and brown — adorned the rice, concealing it from sight. The medley featured a variety of finely chopped vegetables, including kailan, mani cai, long beans and cabbage. Completing the mix were peanuts, tofu bits and, most interestingly, a sprinkling of hae bee in place of the typical ikan bilis. So much fibre in this bowl!
You’d think this would be every veggie-hater’s nightmare. Well, it isn’t; not for this one, at least. As someone who isn’t particularly fond of greens, I oddly have an affinity for lei cha. Doesn’t that speak volumes, then?
First things first, I tossed up the rice and ingredients and tucked into the mix sans tea soup. This is a rule of thumb I’ve always sworn by for maximum satisfaction, so trust me on this.
The vegetables were fresh and crisp, each type contributing a unique flavour and texture. Crunchy long beans, mildly bitter and firm mani cai and kai lan, sweet and soft cabbage — each element had a hand in lending the dish a pronounced earthy profile. If you’re highly averse to vegetables, you may, however, find the earthiness a tad overwhelming.
The crunchy peanuts and soft tofu served as great complements to the vegetables. They offered a pleasant, nutty flavour contrast, elevated by the discernible umami lent by the hae bee bits. Although there really isn’t much to gripe about this bowl as a whole, I believe it could benefit from the addition of chye poh for a touch of umami sweetness for better flavour balance.
Tying everything together was the brown rice, which had a satisfyingly gritty yet soft and chewy texture that served as the perfect base. Not to toot my own horn, but this was a great choice.
Satisfied, I shifted my focus to the rice’s partner in crime: the tea soup. For the uninitiated, this glorious broth is made from a blend typically composed of green tea leaves, nuts and herbs such as basil and mint. The ingredients are ground into a paste, hot water is added, and voila, there’s your soup.
Leipopo’s tea soup bore a vibrant green hue reminiscent of matcha latte, to the point I was half-expecting it to taste sweet and milky. It didn’t, of course. Instead, it had a savoury and layered flavour profile that was rich and complex in the best way possible.
First, I could taste refreshing hints of tea and delicately herbal notes of basil and mint, which gave the broth its characteristic fresh and clean taste. Complementing these were nutty undertones from the roasted nuts and sesame seeds, imparting a gentle umami and a full-bodied savouriness that made it easy on the palate.
The best part? These flavours did not overpower one another. Mm-hmm, this definitely cemented itself as one of the best lei cha tea soups I’ve ever had. I almost couldn’t put the soup spoon down.
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Ah, it was finally time to complete the lei cha experience by pouring the tea soup over the rice. The combination was powerful and cohesive — the herbal and nutty flavours of the broth paired wonderfully with the earthiness of the vegetables. What’s more, the tea introduced a delightful moisture that made each bite easier and more enjoyable.
Moving on, it was the yong tau foo’s turn to shine. With ‘go big or go home’ in mind, I opted for the hefty 7-piece platter.
“No brinjal and bitter gourd please,” the veggie-hater in me sheepishly spoke when the uncle asked me to choose the pieces I wanted. As it turns out, there were only 3 other options available and I was served multiple of each. Oops, maybe I should’ve saved myself a few dollars and just gone for the 3-piece platter.
I reached for the ‘crown jewel’ of the plate: the meatballs — or at least, that’s what I thought they were. On closer inspection, these morsels were actually just delicate pockets of tau pok stuffed with meat.
Prior to my visit, I had learnt that Leipopo’s yong tau foo filling makes use of fresh pork and an umami-rich mackerel fish paste. The mere idea of it was enough to make my mouth water, and boy, the real deal did not disappoint.
I was simply blown away by how tasty that meat filling was — it was juicy and seasoned to a tee, with robust notes of garlic, onion and pepper. The fibrous tau pok flaked apart in my mouth, serving as the perfect vessel for that teeth-sinking tender filling.
Enter my next conquest, the stuffed tau kee, which I paired with some chilli dip this round.
Oof, that orange-hued chilli was surprisingly fiery! It was potent, not only in terms of spice but also in flavour — it was perfumed with aromatic garlic, which enhanced the umami of the meat filling. Very impressive.
The stuffed tau kee itself was tasty as well, but I would’ve preferred if the tau kee sheets were thicker such that there’d be a more substantial bite. No huge complaints, though.
And finally, a hefty block of stuffed tau kwa. The combination of savoury, succulent meat and mildly nutty tau kwa that’s crispy on the outside and silky soft on the inside? You know this was perfection. I couldn’t have been happier for the 3 pieces I was given.
Yep, all’s well that ends well; I polished off all 7 pieces of yong tau foo, no regrets.
Final Thoughts
Aaron was right. Hakka Leipopo’s delicious take on lei cha really stands in the upper echelons as far as my personal experiences are concerned. If you’ve never tried lei cha, this is the perfect place for your first try.
From the vibrant and fresh assortment of ingredients to the delightful drinkable broth and perfectly seasoned Hakka YTF, every bite I had here was a delight. I’m already looking forward to my next visit.
Expected damage: S$5 – S$12.20 per pax
We tried Singapore’s best-rated Wanton Mee
Order Delivery: foodpanda Deliveroo
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